Podcasts presented by Sue Dougan

Alana Parsons is Chief Operating Officer and travel money expert at Caxton FX, where she’s worked for the last 15 years. A self-confessed finance obsessive, she’s been known to belt out pop songs in the middle of marathon days and nights at the office and believes in bringing a lightness of touch to the organisation! She’s widely travelled, loves the USA in particular and as you’ll hear has been the instigator of one or two company traditions.

Diana Theodores is director of Theatre 4 Business, using her extensive background in the theatre to bring performance and creativity to corporations. She serves on the faculties of the Cranfield School of Management, The Banff Centre and Mobius Executive leadership. She has a PhD from Trinity College in Dublin and still loves all things performance – listen as she describes delivering coaching to a bunch of butchers! She’s passionate on the subject of women in leadership, working hard with women who have CEO potential. She’s also the author of ‘Performing As You’, drawing on her background in theatre to bring confidence and authenticity to the workplace.

Julian Daizan Skinner is a British Rinzai Zen Buddhist Rōshi master - the first British man to achieve that level. He discovered mindfulness and yoga after an earlier career in engineering, and now teaches and writes prolifically on the subject. He’s the founder of Zenways, which promotes and encourages activities and practices that enhance human wellbeing, balance and awakening in the modern world. Julian also explains how his years in the study of zen have given him an insight into how it can be applied to best effect in the workplace.

Ben Leonard joined HSBC as a graduate, and was an internal success story, reaching the level of former Head of Financial Institutions at HSBC. Having spent 20 years working for the organisation, he left in 2016 and went into partnership with a friend. They have launched the app FirstHomeCoach (with more related titles to follow). Listen as he talks about the change from corporation to entrepreneur, and how his house now operates the ‘one cereal at a time rule’ owing to his shift in salary!

Justin Wright is the co-author of best-selling business book, ‘Stretchonomics’ and co-founder at consultancy Mangrove. A builder’s son, he started out as a money broker before deciding that City life was not for him – he describes his first day as one of the most daunting of his life. He later studied psychology before joining Proctor and Gamble. His agency looks after the likes of Diageo, Unilever, and BP. Justin admires great names from the world of sport, saying we should not underestimate the power of enjoying “something simple”.

Bruce Morton is head of strategy at Allegis, a global recruiter, and has worked with the likes of Paypal, ebBay, Amazon and many other global and regional companies on building their workforces. Before his time with Allegis, he worked in sales – and before that, was a butcher! He’s keen on music and sport and thinks the workplace of 10 years in the future will be unrecognisable and that more companies are focusing less on ‘talent’ and more on ‘getting work done’. His thoughts on workplace change are available in his new book, ‘Redesigning The Way Work Works’.

In this new edition of Track Record, Sue Dougan talks to Richard Buchanan. He founded “The Clearing” ten years ago – an award-winning brand consultancy working with diverse household names such as Hugo Boss, HSBC, and Tesco. In his younger days, he studied art, then went on to join Newell & Sorrell – infamous for the ill-fated ethnic BA tailfins. That business became Interbrand, where he rose to director level. Here, he rebranded Barclays Bank, Opel /GM, British Red Cross and Orange. Richard joins Sue to talk about his journey, to fill in the gaps, and to share some life lessons along the way.

Bernardo Moya started in Spanish real estate, and twice built up property businesses before discovering neuro-linguistic programming - and more importantly, its application in business. He's built up one of the biggest businesses in this field and works in the corporate sector extensively. It's all about the 'fresh download for the brain', as he puts it! He's also a former DJ.

Graham Shaw is a former primary school teacher, turned corporate trainer and speaking expert. He’s a keen artist and amateur musician who uses his cartoons in his work (which includes major organisations such as HSBC and Specsavers) and who isn’t afraid to admit his errors when they happen.

Digital agency director Luca Senatore put himself through evening school to learn marketing, after a fractured education in his native Italy. He came to the UK unable to speak the language, and was promptly fired from his first job. Undeterred, he moved from waiter to business owner to agency founder within a few years, and now works in digital marketing serving leading retailers as director at Genie venture. He borrows from sporting philosophy for business, and his top tip for motivation and character-building is to ‘think like Superman!’ in meetings.